--- title: Social Media Influencers Pay More at Viral Ice Cream Truck description: Joe Nicchi is going viral for taking a stand against influencers asking for freebies. canonical: https://time.com/5619750/ice-cream-truck-viral/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-03T15:13:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:24.940Z og:title: Social Media Influencers Pay Double at This Soft Serve Truck Because the Ice Cream Man Reached His Melting Point og:description: The owner has had enough. og:url: https://time.com/5619750/ice-cream-truck-viral/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede04234f9f53dfb/6989ff7db21a9c18fb501fe1/icecreamtruck.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5400 og:image:height: 3038 og:image:alt: Ice cream truck parked in parking lot og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Social Media Influencers Pay Double at This Soft Serve Truck Because the Ice Cream Man Reached His Melting Point twitter:description: The owner has had enough. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede04234f9f53dfb/6989ff7db21a9c18fb501fe1/icecreamtruck.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Social Media Influencers Have to Pay Double at This Soft Serve Truck Because the Ice Cream Man Has Reached His Melting Point > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 3, 2019 3:13 PM UTC  Hero Images—Getty Images/Hero Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 3, 2019 3:13 PM UTC While some brands might be eager for social media [influencers](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/) to peddle their wares online, one ice cream man is fed up. Joe Nicchi, who runs the popular CVT soft serve ice cream truck in Los Angeles, is going viral for posting a photo to his [Instagram](https://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/) page where he holds a sign saying that “Influencers pay double.” It was a strong stance against social media influencers, some of whom get freebies in exchange for goods or services. Nicchi opened the bare bones ice cream truck in 2014 to sell just chocolate, vanilla or twist soft-serve ice cream out of a vintage Mr Softee. (The flavors he sells gave his truck the name, CVT Soft Serve.) While his $4 ice cream isn’t exactly pricey, Nicchi says he received a number of requests by social media influencers asking him to give them a cone for free in exchange for being featured in an [Instagram Story](https://time.com/5579587/best-instagram-stories-accounts-to-follow/) or other social media post. [_Vice_ reports](https://www.vice.com/en%5Fus/article/mb8nnn/this-ice-cream-truck-owner-hates-influencers-so-much-he-charges-them-double) that when Nicchi was asked to serve ice cream to a 300-person event for free in exchange for exposure, he reached his breaking point, which he [documented](https://www.instagram.com/p/ByJDx0iJLqE/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed) on Instagram. That’s when he decided to take a stand and posted his sign to his truck and his photo to Instagram. It’s particularly grating to Nicchi and crew because they aren’t exactly dying for exposure. The year they opened they were named Best Food Truck in L.A. [by _LA Weekly_](https://foursquare.com/v/cvt-softserve-truck/534f2239498e357c4eb0ddec), topped _Los Angeles_ magazine’s [best food truck](https://www.lamag.com/digestblog/the-25-best-food-trucks-in-los-angeles/) listings in 2017, and they [earned a mention](https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/02/25/best-dessert-food-trucks-in-los-angeles/) as one of the Best Dessert Food Trucks again in 2018\. They’ve been written up by _Goop_ as part of a “[Definitive LA Food Truck Guide](https://goop.com/travel/experiences/the-los-angeles-food-truck-guide/)”. Plus, they hosted a Bill Murray ice cream social that Bill Murray actually attended (and was covered by the national media, including [_Rolling Stone_](https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/bill-murray-turns-up-at-fans-ice-cream-social-205048/) has been listed as one of the [“five best things we ate”](https://www.zagat.com/b/los-angeles/5-best-things-we-ate-this-month-around-la) at food review site Zagat. The ice cream truck owner [told _NBC Los Angeles_](https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Ice-Cream-Truck-Owner-Says-Influencers-Pay-Double-in-Viral-Post--512134362.html) that while he appreciates the offers, he is running a business and has bills to pay, bills that can’t be paid by exposure. He has now instructed his team “to ignore social media influencer inquiries altogether.” In an ironic twist, the photo of Nicchi went viral after the image was posted to Reddit, and quickly made it to the site’s front page. As Nicchi now is his own social media influencer, hopefully he will use his powers for good. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5619750/ice-cream-truck-viral/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5619750/ice-cream-truck-viral/"},"headline":"Social Media Influencers Have to Pay Double at This Soft Serve Truck Because the Ice Cream Man Has Reached His Melting Point","datePublished":"2019-07-03T15:13:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:24.940Z","description":"Joe Nicchi is going viral for taking a stand against influencers asking for freebies.","url":"https://time.com/5619750/ice-cream-truck-viral/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","food and drink","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede04234f9f53dfb/6989ff7db21a9c18fb501fe1/icecreamtruck.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede04234f9f53dfb/6989ff7db21a9c18fb501fe1/icecreamtruck.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ice cream truck parked in parking lot","caption":"Ice cream truck parked in parking lot","creditText":"Hero Images—Getty Images/Hero Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5619750/ice-cream-truck-viral/","name":"Social Media Influencers Have to Pay Double at This Soft Serve Truck Because the Ice Cream Man Has Reached His Melting Point"}}]}] ```